Stephanie is 26 years old and Jessica is 4 years old. How many years will it take until Stephanie is only 3 times as old as Jessica?
Explanation: We can use the given information to write down an equation about how many years it will take. Let $y$ be the number of years that it will take. In $y$ years, Stephanie will be $26 + y$ years old and Jessica will be $4 + y$ years old. At that time, Stephanie will be 3 times as old as Jessica. Writing this information as an equation, we get: $26 + y = 3 (4 + y)$ Simplifying the right side of this equation, we get: $26 + y = 12 + 3 y$ Solving for $y$ , we get: $2 y = 14$ $y = 7$.